CPRC in the Washington Post on Mass Shooting Tracker’s misleading methodology and claim of 355 mass shootings this year

Dec 4, 2015 | Featured

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John Lott’s past concerns about Mass Shooting Tracker’s methodology were aired by Christopher Ingraham in the Washington Post”

Some observers, such as independent researcher and gun-rights proponent John Lott, object to the tracker’s methodology, because it counts “a lot of shootings where people aren’t killed, criminal gangs are involved, and cases take place out of public view.” He argues that gang violence and domestic violence spring from different causes than instances in the Colorado Springs, Colo., or San Bernardino shootings, and that they should be considered separately.

“The causes and solutions to drug gang violence are dramatically different than for the vast majority of mass public shootings, where attacks are designed to kill or wound as many people as possible,” Lott said in a post on the Crime Research Prevention Center website earlier this year. “Padding the numbers by lumping the two together doesn’t make much sense.” . . .

A discussion of some of these numbers from earlier this year is available here.

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